Sunday, October 13, 2013
[1754 - Molly Pitcher (Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley), Revolutionary War heroine, born near Trenton, New Jersey]
[1775 - The Continental Navy is established by a Resolution of the Continental Congress]
[1792 - President's (later White) House cornerstone is laid]
[1821 - Rudolf Carl Virchow, physician, scientist, born in Schivelbein (Pomerania)]
[1902 - Wilbur Shaw, race car driver, Indianapolis Speedway three time winner & president, born in Shelbyville, Indiana]
[1909 - Herblock (Herbert L. Block), Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist, born in Chicago]
[1915 - Cornel (Cornelius Louis) Wilde, actor, director, born in Manhattan]
[1917 - Burr Tillstrom, Emmy Award-winning puppeteer, born in Chicago]
[1920 - Laraine Day (La Raine Johnson), actress, born in Roosevelt, Utah]
[1921 - Louis Henry 'Lou' Saban, college and pro football player, coach, executive, born in Brookfield, Illinois]
[1921 - Yves Montand (Yvo Livi), actor, born in Monsummano Terme, Italy]
[1924 - Nipsey Russell, comedian, actor, born in Atlanta, Georgia]
[1925 - Lenny Bruce (Leonard Alfred Schneider), comedian, writer, born in Mineola, New York]
[1925 - Baroness Margaret (Hilda) Thatcher (Roberts), British Prime Minister, born in Grantham, Lincolnshire, UK]
[1931 - Eddie (Edwin Lee) Mathews, Baseball Hall of Fame third baseman, born in Texarkana, Texas]
Establishing what is now the United States Navy
Resolved, That a swift sailing vessel, to carry ten carriage guns, and a proportionable number of swivels, with eighty men, be fitted, with all possible despatch, for a cruise of three months, and that the commander be instructed to cruize eastward, for intercepting such transports as may be laden with warlike stores and other supplies for our enemies, and for such other purposes as the Congress shall direct.Source: Journal of the Continental Congress, 13 October 1775, in William Bell Clark, editor, Naval Documents of the American Revolution, Vol. 2, p. 442 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1966).
That a Committee of three be appointed to prepare an estimate of the expence, and lay the same before the Congress, and to contract with proper persons to fit out the vessel.
Resolved, that another vessel be fitted out for the same purposes, and that the said committee report their opinion of a proper vessel, and also an estimate of the expence.
William's Whimsical Words:
What do you suppose the Colonists would have said if the Committee had come back to Congress with one of these?
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